Samsung Replenish, a Green Phone for Sprint

When you are shopping for a new phone, is the eco/green factor important to you? If so, you should check out the Samsung Replenish, coming soon to Sprint. This phone is definitely not high-end. In fact, it barely has better specs than the first Android phone, the T-Mobile G1.

The Samsung Replenish is housed in a plastic casing made from 34.6% recycled plastic. The packaging is completely recyclable, made from post-consumer fibers and soy-based ink. Supposedly, it is made from “environmentally sensitive materials,” whatever that means. It has an energy-efficient charger.

The Replenish has a Blackberry-style full frontal QWERTY, 2.8 inch QVGA display, single-core MSM7627-2 600 MHz chipset, 2 MP camera. It will come with a 2 GB microSD, expandable up to 32 GB. It of course has the regulars: Wifi, Bluetooth 2.1, GPS, and 3G.

This device will be available on Sprint for $50 on a two-year agreement, and Sprint will waive the $10/month Premium Data Charge.

Dan Hesse, the CEO of Sprint had this to say in a prepared statement: “Samsung Replenish is as green as we could make it with more than 80 percent recyclable materials, housed in partially recycled plastics, energy-efficient and built with fewer environmentally sensitive materials. As if this is not enough incentive, we are also lowering the monthly rate for this phone by $10 for new or existing customers so it pays for itself within just five months.”

If you ask me, I will tell you that this is nonsense. This is a tiny step toward sustainability, and I guess small steps eventually build up, but just how small this step is seems laughable to me. They don’t even tell us what environmentally sensitive materials means! Please, rant at me in the comments.